Gaming machines which provide players awards in primary or base games are well known. Gaming machines generally require the player to place or make a wager to activate the primary or base game. In many of these gaming machines, the award is based on the player obtaining a winning symbol or symbol combination and based on the amount of the wager (e.g., the higher the wager, the higher the award). Symbols or symbol combinations which are less likely to occur usually provide higher awards.
In such known gaming machines, the amount of the wager made on the base game by the player may vary. For instance, the gaming machine may allow the player to wager a minimum number of credits, such as one credit (e.g., one cent, nickel, dime, quarter or dollar) up to a maximum number of credits, such as five credits. This wager may be made by the player a single time or multiple times in a single play of a primary game. For instance, a slot game may have one or more paylines and the slot game may allow the player to make a wager on each payline in a single play of the primary game. Slot games with 1, 3, 5, 9, 15 and 25 lines are widely commercially available. Thus, it is known that a gaming machine, such as a slot game, may allow players to make wagers of substantially different amounts on each play of the primary or base game ranging, for example, from one credit up to 125 credits (e.g., five credits on each of 25 separate paylines). This is also true for other wagering games, such as video draw poker, where players can wager one or more credits on each hand and where multiple hands can be played simultaneously.
Secondary or bonus games are also known in gaming machines. The secondary or bonus games usually provide an additional award to the player. Secondary or bonus games usually do not require an additional wager by the player to be activated. Secondary or bonus games are generally activated or triggered upon an occurrence of a designated triggering symbol or triggering symbol combination in the primary or base game. For instance, a bonus symbol occurring on the payline on the third reel of a three reel slot machine may trigger the secondary bonus game. When a secondary or bonus game is triggered, the gaming machines generally indicates this to the player through one or more visual and/or audio output devices, such as the reels, lights, speakers, video screens, etc. Part of the enjoyment and excitement of playing certain gaming machines is the occurrence of the secondary or bonus game (even before the player knows how much the bonus award will be).
Certain known gaming systems are configured to provide awards to multiple gaming machines or groups of gaming machines. These awards are sometimes displayed by a single display for multiple gaming machines. For instance, progressive awards associated with gaming machines are known. In one form, a known progressive award includes an initial amount funded by a casino and an additional amount funded through a portion of each wager made on the progressive gaming machine. For example, 1% of each wager placed on the primary game of the gaming machine may be allocated to the progressive award or progressive award fund. The progressive award grows in value as more players play the gaming machine and more portions of the players' wagers are allocated to the progressive award. When a player obtains a winning symbol or symbol combination which results in the progressive award, the accumulated progressive award is provided to the player. After the progressive award is provided to the player, the amount of the next progressive award is reset to the initial value and a portion of each subsequent wager is allocated to that next progressive award as described above.
In recent years, gaming has become a more social leisure activity. Gaming establishments often strive for ways to enable players to work together in gaming. Working together creates camaraderie among the players and provides an enhanced gaming experience. In certain known group games, to account for the number of complicated issues in providing a group game to a plurality of players at a plurality of gaming devices, a mystery trigger is utilized to determine when a group game is triggered. While such mystery triggers often leave players not knowing why they were included or excluded from the triggered group game, these mystery triggers avoid certain disadvantages in triggering a group game based on a symbol-driven event (i.e., a generation of one or more designated symbols in a player's base game). One disadvantage of utilizing a symbol-driven event to trigger a group game is that if less players are playing the gaming machines, then less total games will be played on the gaming machines in the gaming system and it will take longer for a triggering of the group game to occur. Longer periods of time between group games may discourage players and lead to player fatigue. Such player fatigue can lead to players walking away from the gaming machines because they no longer find it worth the cost of continuing to play. Additionally, utilizing a symbol-driven event to trigger a group game causes gaming system designers to incur certain mathematical complications, such as accounting for a group game that has different quantities of players playing at different times, in determining the payouts for the group games. Accordingly, certain known group games limit the “group effort” feeling that players experience in such group games because at best, the group shares in a bonus event while the effect that each player has on the group is minimum to none.
There is a continuing need to provide secondary games which include a group gaming aspect, wherein a plurality of players playing at linked gaming machines participate in a group event for one or more awards. There is also a continuing need to provide new and different gaming machines and gaming systems as well as new and different ways to provide awards to players including bonus awards. Additionally, there is a continuing need to provide new and different linked or related gaming machines.